Meat Buns and a Hyuuga
by hebicaro
Summary: NejiTen - Tenten never realized it before… but she had met Hyuuga Neji in her childhood. She may not remember, but he sure as hell does. What happened in their past that contributed to their relationship today? Oneshot.


**summary **

NejiTen - Tenten never realized it before… but she had met Hyuuga Neji in her childhood. She may not remember, but he sure as hell does. What happened in their past that contributed to their relationship today? Oneshot.

**a/n: **Hai guyz. :B This is former fanfiction writer erigstimloveles, now on a new account! I'm very happy to continue writing Naruto after basically five years of owning an account on this site. Time to expand my horizons and write seriously! (Well, a little more seriously than before.) I hope you enjoy this _Nejiten _tidbit. They are my favorite Naruto ship. Seriously.

**_meat buns and a hyuuga._**

_x. oneshot: nejiten._

A scream of agony.

That was basically it. A loud piercing holler in his dream and then Neji wakes up from his sleep, perspiration on his forehead, breath choppy and irregular. Pupils dilated… head spinning and heart thumping. Typical.

He never tried to sleep too deeply, for he knew what lurked in his subconscious. That desperate image of his late father—and the despicable curse mark carved on his forehead. The same curse that marks Neji's own face…

His father—Hyuuga Hizashi—pushed upon the ground, the shrill vibrations of the curse mark echoing wildly. His body thrashes around with his young son standing helplessly on the side, tears gathering in his eyes. That incident was his first brush with reality. The cruel life that fate dealt him and the rest of the Branch family of the prestigious Hyuuga clan.

Neji didn't have this nightmare very often, but once in awhile, his restless heart conjures up the same dream again and again. The image of his father on the ground, clutching his head and screaming for the pain to end.

Five year old Neji lost his father a long time ago. Now, as he sat up in his futon, thoughts swirled wildly in his brain. Closing his quicksilver eyes, he tried to regain composure.

Dawn was arising outside, sunlight peeking out of the closed curtains in his dark room. Warmth trickled through and touched his skin and face. A shiver ran through his spine and Neji quickly grabbed the black ribbon sitting beside his futon. Smoothing his long black hair back quickly, he tied the ends of his hair together with quick ease.

Out. Get out of the dark room. His chest lurched as he opened the screen doors of his room and fled.

**the strange girl.**

Neji fled so quickly from his cramped room, he didn't bother with slippers or shoes of any kind. The morning dew on the grass tickled the soles of his feet, wet and cool to the touch. To him, it felt nice. Closer to freedom than he would ever be able to taste. It became routine—whenever he had his signature nightmare about his father, he would get away from his room. Away from the Hyuuga compound. Just _away._

The morning sun was on the horizon now as birds cheeped, waking from sleep, and the morning breeze ruffled the mildewed grass.

Young Hyuuga Neji walked into a meadow area next to a small clear creek and sat down on a rock, breathing deeply. Images of his father flashed in his mind every so often, but he did his best to cast them away. Closing his pale eyes, he attempted to relax himself with a few meditation techniques.

It'd been 5 minutes—10 minutes—20 minutes before he peeled his eyes open. His heart rate was down, and his breathing steadied. Clenching and unclenching his bandaged right fist, Neji exhaled deeply, letting the air within his lungs escape. He tilted his head up to feel the warmth on his face. Yup. He was alright.

On the other side of the creek, Hyuuga Neji was not aware of a young girl eagerly making her way through the meadow. She was a bright-eyed and casual specimen of a shinobi, a yellow sundress adorning her figure and hair parted into two buns on both sides of her head. Wisps of her dark brown hair framed her petite face, chestnut eyes gleaming. Her friends knew her as Tenten; the young and cheerful future kunoichi of Konoha.

It had became a strange hobby of hers to wake up at the crack of dawn, sneak into her kitchen to snatch a few anpan buns, and then run off into the meadows whilst her family was still sleeping. Walking bare-feet in the grass, she felt the soft earth beneath her soles as she excitedly clutched her meat buns to settle herself atop a rock and dine on breakfast.

Her feet crossed the cold creek, water splashing onto her dress, yet she continued on unfazed. Breathing steadily, she spotted her favorite rock in the distance and a crooked smile stretched onto her face.

But she stopped in her tracks when the unfamiliar presence of a boy crossed into her perceptions. Tenten blinked a few times and slowly ducked behind a boulder, seeing this long haired boy atop her rock, eyes closed and faced scrunched up in a despaired manner. He remained still for many minutes while Tenten curiously tilted her head to get a better angle of this stranger.

He was pretty. Really pretty. Long and dark hair tied at the ends with a ribbon, his face pale and smooth. Almost reminded her of an aristocrat. Tenten fiddled with a loose rock at her side, as she remained crouched behind the large boulder spying on the foreign person.

The boy opened his eyes at long last and Tenten was delighted to see the most fascinating and delicate features of his face. In the center of his face were a set of beautiful glowing orbs, almost white in color. Tenten's face tinted pale pink, feeling almost overwhelmed by the beauty of the person in front of her. He almost reminded her of a girl except for the ineffably foreboding sense of presence he gave off. Certainly a boy, she mused.

Her stomach gave a slight rumble and she reached into her pocket to peel a slice of her anpan bun. Nibbling the bread thoughtfully, she continued watching the boy.

_He looks lonely. _Tenten thought after a few moments of contemplation. She wondered if he had wandered here to play, as she herself had done too. The longer she thought about it, the more these thoughts traversed into her mind. Unable to stop herself from remaining silent for much longer, she stepped out from her hiding spot and yelped a small greeting.

"Ano?" She said.

The boy sitting atop the rock quickly swiveled his head to greet the new sound. He lurched from where he sat and stood up speedily, splashing the water beneath his feet with a sudden speed. There. In the distance, a girl was standing, just in front of a boulder. From what he could make out, she was short. And sporting a yellow dress with dark hair. His face immediately gained a countenance of caution and slight animosity.

"What do you want?" He asked her loudly, attempting to stand his ground with a hoarsened tone.

Tenten winced. She cocked her head to analyze his stance. Withdrawn and testy, she realized. The boy in front of her had certainly lost a sense of grace she had initially observed in his quiet demeanor when he sitting by himself. The sudden standoff-ish attitude certainly surprised her a little bit.

"What are you doing?" Tenten asked, collecting her courage and inching her way towards him carefully. She wasn't about to get scared off.

Neji got a better look at the girl approaching him. Her skin was bright, and it matched her gleaming eyes. Two buns of dark brown hair adorned either side of her head and she walked towards him with a confident manner. A half eaten meat bun was in her hand.

The young Hyuuga wasn't about to stick around. He turned on his heel quickly and proceeded to walk in the opposite direction wordlessly.

Tenten's eyes widened. How rude. Who she pictured to be a marble-eyed prince with long dark flowing hair is turning out to be a young spoiled jerk who would ditch an attempt of conversation on her part.

"H-Hey!" The young girl cried and heaved her half-eaten meat bun at his head.

The flying pastry struck him at the back of his head and Neji whirled around, a bit stunned and indignant, not sure for a second what hit him. The bun flopped into the water like a soggy water balloon. He looked down to see what the choice projectile was.

"A-ah… gomen…" Tenten regained some of her composure, face suddenly lit with embarrassment. She brought her hands to her mouth and covered her lips, before galloping slowly to retrieve her ruined breakfast from the riverbed.

Neji was not amused. He only stood his ground as the young dark haired girl ran towards him to fetch the soggy morsel of bread in the creek. Bringing a hand up towards the back of his head, he felt the slightly gooey texture of the breakfast bun imprinted in his hair. Unimpressed, Neji unfastened the ribbon in his hair and began to slowly remove the bits of meat and bread encrusted in his hair.

The bun smelled like meat, but the texture itself was a bit appalling, very mashed up and a tint of red and purple.

"What," He muttered softly, fingers grabbing a handful of faux meat from his hair. "Is this?"

Tenten looked up at the Hyuuga. Seeing his silver eyes close up was a bit intimidating but relaxing at the same time. Placid and unmoving, the young boy's flashing orbs were laden with promise, but darkened by indescribable emotion. Still crouched at his feet gathering her destroyed breakfast, she blinked a few times, seemingly paralyzed by his intoxicating eyes.

"I'm Tenten."

"I didn't ask your name."

"Now you know." Tenten grinned cheekily.

"This is disgusting." The Hyuuga boy said with a slightly haughty air, peeling away the bread from his hair.

"It's a meat bun!" Tenten exclaimed, as if suddenly realizing what they were talking about. The girl stood up and brushed a loose piece of hair from her eye. "It's only 50 yen at the market. My mom buys a few each day, and I always have it for breakfast." She battered off the story and beamed, as if proud of the very fact.

Neji narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the very odd girl in front of him. She was plain looking; average at best. Her hair was a little too dark, too perky, and too compact. Her eyes too dark a shade of amber and too light a shade of coffee. There was nothing too special about her except for the exuberance she emitted. And even that was annoying enough for Hyuuga Neji, for whom happiness seemed to fester like a useless bug in his brain.

"This is not a meat bun." Neji said plainly. "It's some mashed up gooey fake meat." He said this and flicked a piece of meat from his hair into Tenten's face.

"What! But it's delicious." Tenten flinched, the meat particle pelting her cheek. Sourly rubbing her face, she looked at the mess in her hands. Hearing his words, her meal suddenly became less appetizing as the red substance appeared to gleam with unnatural shininess. Turning a frown on her face, she plopped the bun sadly into the creek and washed it get carried away by a current in the water.

Neji didn't wait for another response. He turned to leave this time, satisfied that the girl in front of him did not have anymore weapons to pelt him with. But Tenten only narrowed her brow curiously at the enigmatic boy.

"Ano—what's your name?" Tenten asked, following his footsteps through the gentle water.

"None of your business. I don't talk to strangers." He replied coldly and haughtily.

"But you know my name."

"I didn't want to know your name."

"My name is Tenten."

"I don't _care._"

"You still have meat in your hair."

Neji halted to an annoyed stop and looked over his shoulder, eyes glazed with little patience. Tenten stopped too, a few feet behind the boy, still glowingly smiling at him. There was a silence that fell between the two for awhile before Tenten stuck her hand out from behind her back, holding a strange shiny pendant in her palm.

The pendant gleamed in the sun, the seal of the Hyuuga clan embedded it its rock.

Neji's mouth jarred open ever so slightly, seeing the familiar family crest resting within the girl's hands. His thoughts whirled and he quickly moved his back hand to feel the vacancy in his pocket.

Looking up with angry eyes at the girl in front of him, his eyebrows narrowed into a malevolent glare, fists clenched. "How did—"

"You dropped it just now." Tenten answered him before he could finish his question. Her smile softened considerably as the Hyuuga boy in front of her stood a bit stunned.

He grit his teeth and quickly trudged through the water to snatch away the pendant from her open palms. She didn't seem fazed by his harsh reaction, but she quietly tucked her palm away and placed both her hands behind her back innocuously.

"Is that a family heirloom?" Tenten asked curiously, a wide smile etched on her face.

The pendant that Neji now cradled in his own hands belonged to his late father—the deceased Hyuuga Hizashi. It had been the last artifact to be handed over to Neji over a year ago, the last remaining souvenir from his father. And to Neji, it represented a cruel fate that he was to remember for the rest of his life. But clenching the pendant tightly, his tense body loosened, and he calmly looked at Tenten with plain but cross eyes.

"It was my father's." He said calmly.

"It's very beautiful. Your family must be nice." Tenten replied, and looked to inspect the stone.

Neji cringed and narrowed his eyes at her. "What do you know?"

"Oh." Tenten looked up to see the pinched expression on his face. Must've touched another nerve. "Sorry. I didn't know you hated your father."

"It's not like that!—" Neji shouted, annoyed that this girl was so incessant in her rambling.

"Just kidding." Tenten said and laughed, seeing the boy get all flustered. She hadn't met anyone this cute in awhile. Most of her friends were easy to socialize with. But this boy appeared to have been raised in a strict environment—his testy actions were a testament to this fact.

She paused and grinned at him. "You don't hate your father, but then you must be worrying about something. You've been sitting here for a long time this morning."

Neji's face was still the poster of cool. He tucked his pendant into his pocket again, secure and sound. "Not really. I sit here a lot."

"No you don't. This is the first time I've seen you here and I'm here everyday." Tenten countered…

"Plus," she added with another wide grin, "I would've noticed someone with eyes like yours!"

It irked Neji that he was still carrying this conservation with the nonsensical girl in front of him. Yet somehow, he felt at ease, as though this stranger who was unaware of any of the tragedy he had been through, was somehow there through it all. Watching him…

"Everyone in my family has these eyes." He answered lamely.

"Sugoi!" Tenten chirped, mouth opened wide. "You're so lucky! I wished I had those eyes! My family is pretty lame—both my parents had brown eyes." She stuck a tongue out playfully.

Neji couldn't help but smile.

"Baka." Was all he said.

"_Tenten!" _A loud voice from the distance called out the girl's name just then. It came from across the riverbed; the voice of an adult. Possibly her mother.

Tenten whirled her head to hear this and her exuberant eyes faded into worried ones. "Oh no! Mom!" She yelped, gulping. Her mother had ordered her before to not go off dilly-dallying so early in the morning by herself. The brown haired girl hurriedly turned around to face her new silver-eyed companion and opened her mouth to speak.

"Ahhh, that's my mom. I have to go!" She mumbled with a clenched mouth and hurriedly skipped off, barely waving a goodbye at the long haired boy in front of her. Her small footprints and the slapping of the water beneath her feet faded in the distance as the sounds of mother and daughter reunite in the distance beyond Neji's gaze.

The Hyuuga stood in the river by himself… a little confused as to what had just happened. Standing there in the mud for a few seconds, he shook his head and turned around to go home.

"Weird girl." He muttered to himself, couldn't helping but to look back and peek one last glance at the brown-hair wide eyed girl that had skipped off so suddenly.

**her name is tenten.**

"_These are your new teammates!"_

Hyuuga Neji looked up with an unimpressed expression on his face: a look he had mastered since childhood. Now a 12 year old young man, he had grown considerably, though his hair was still fastened behind his back with a black ribbon, and his eyes as emotionless as usual. The announcement from the sensei in front of him did little to shake him. He was not nervous that he was now a genin—not nervous about who his teammates were going to be.

"I'm Tenten."

Neji looked up. Who he saw was a familiar yet strange young girl, two buns on either side of her head, sporting an Oriental pink blouse and navy blue capris. Her eyes were bright, and the calmest shade of chestnut. Her voice was perky, yet smooth and somehow seemed to emanate a sense of strength Neji had realized before. A wide smile plastered across her face, as though she were unafraid of what lay ahead.

His fellow teammates and strangely dressed teacher stood before him. Although his attentions were subtly focused on this unassuming girl in front of him.

Tenten, huh.

Somehow all his thoughts flashed back to the insignificant encounter he had with a very strange little girl in a creek one early dawn. Something about a meat bun and his pendant… and her very forward remarks. Neji tilted his head slightly yet unnoticeably. Fate plays really dumb games sometimes…

The girl in front of him blinked a couple of times, inspecting each of her own teammates with curious ease. Her eyes stopped when she met his shining silver orbs. The wide smile across her face faded ever-so-slightly as she stood in front of Hyuuga Neji, in all his glory.

"You have pretty eyes."

Neji smiled.

_Yea. We'll get along just fine._

**END **

**A/N: **This was more of a friendship story if anything, but I always found young Hyuuga Neji very alluring. It's fun to dream sometimes—maybe he DID have encounters with Tenten before. WHAT? A GIRL CAN FANTASIZE ABOUT NONEXISTENT ROMANCES IN THE SERIES, OKAY?

Happy reading! r&r, my friends!


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